When cellphones started to become prevalent in the 90s I just didn’t see the need for it. How many people where going to call me? Then I got my current job. On the road all the time. No landline available. New family. It just made sense to get a cheap one. Then later my wife had to have one. Then she needed the fancy one for school or work or whatever. I kept my cheap one with no internet. When we separated my only indulgence was to get a nice phone. I had sacrificed for long enough.
Now I’m hooked. My iPhone is on me or next to me 24 hours a day. Its the only phone number I use. I text much more than talk. Love texting, never liked talking on the phone. Love having the internet whenever I need it.
Funny how if you didn’t look at the actual poll it would seem like most people don’t have cell phones.
A dumbphone with purchased minutes and free wifi for the tablet will be cheaper to use than a smartphone or tablet w/phone on a data plan.
And you may find there are situations where you’d stick a cellphone in your pocket, but not tote around the tablet.
Side note: I have a Nook HD; the choice was driven by a gift certificate. I’d advise against a Nook due to the crippleware version of Android that Barnes & Noble installs on it. It’s unpredictable and poorly documented.
But I’d definitely advise in favor of a 7" (paperback-size) over a 9" (hardcover-size) – much more portable and easier to hold.
Sure (although I’m not sure it will be useful to you, as my phone is Windows Phone 8) - I use thisone.
I like it because it’s functional, simple, location aware and properly compliant with the WP8 API standards.
I never found one for Android that I was really completely happy with - and before that, I was using TideTool for PalmOS (and after that, but before Android, I still used TideTool in a PalmOS emulator in Windows Mobile)
Yes, it was given to me a few weeks ago, just in time to use it when I was part of a three-car accident on the hightway. I haven’t used it since.
It’s a Tracphone, so I pay by the minute and my unless I buy more time my service will expire in a couple of months. I’m doubtful I will buy any more time, but we’ll see.
For a brief period I considered going with it exclusively, until I found out more about how it works. The clock starts ticking when I get a dial tone, so I’m paying for the time I spend dialing and letting it ring. Also, there is no such thing as a “toll free” number, so when I’m calling one of my service providers (allegedly) toll-free and sitting on hold for 20 minutes at a time, I’m paying for those minutes too.
So while I might someday cut the land line and go with a cell exclusively, it will have to be with some other kind of deal than this.
One other thing – maybe 10? years ago I had cell that I dumped after the first year’s contract was up. That was Verizon, and not only did they lose half my calls, I had to call their billing department every single month because they kept sticking me with service fees for stuff I didn’t order, and they would take it off the current bill and it would show up again next month. I never went back to a cell again until my sister upgraded her phone and gave me her old one.
Funny you should ask because I spent part of yesterday researching this again.
I have a phone when I am travelling for work but it doesn’t work in the US. When I am home, I am working from home so I don’t need a cell.
I am debating giving up my digital phone (through TWC) for various reasons but have discovered that I have NO cell phone reception in my house. Outside the house, yes, but I’m told it’s because I have double-walled brick construction that interferes with reception indoors.
So I am considering going back to a bona-fide landline unless someone can recommend a solution.
Oh, and buying a cell phone booster for $$$ is not in the cards.
Got my first cell phone in 1999 when it became a necessity for a new work assignment to be able to place and take calls on the move. Nice solid old Nokia you could use to bash in someone’s head in self defense. Went flip-phone in late 2003/early 2004 and finally moved to smartphone in Spring of 2010 as demands for more constant and extensive communications in different formats rose. I average a 3-to-4 year lifetime for the handsets.
Have a rollover North America voice call + high but finite messages + grandfathered unlimited data plan, runs me about $88/month.
The smartphone has enabled me to not have to carry my netbook (yes, netbook; when* it *dies I’ll get the tablet) if I know I will not have to work on preparing documents while on the road.
By now I know 90% of calls on my landline are sales, fundraising, or are looking for my mother who keeps putting this number in forms though *she *only uses her mobile!
Mt solution is keeping my phone on a windowsill where it barely gets a signal. If it rings and I wanna answer, or to place a call, I take it out onto our side porch. Works for me.
To address the second point first, no, I wouldn’t just stick the phone in my pocket. I tried doing that when I first started carrying a phone, and due to the fact that I wear long, flowing dresses and skirts, the phones fall out of the pockets more often than they stay in. There’s also the fact that I always, always, always take my purse with me. So it’s just as easy for me to carry an ereader/tablet as it is a phone.
I’m thinking of getting a smartphone tablet because it would have a GPS as well as the other advantages. The Garmin I currently use is quite old.
And I doubt that I’ll get a nook again, due to the issues you state. My current nook was a gift. I had resisted getting an ereader, thinking that I’d hate it. Now, though, I get anxious if I’m separated from it, crippleware and all.
Dumped the land line when I moved into this apartment 4.5 years ago, since I had been given a cellphone about 5 months earlier.
Last spring I bought a phone from Amazon for $44 (or thereabouts) and signed up for the T-Mobile pay-as-you-go, putting $100 on the phone in early March. That ran out in late August and I put another $100 on it. Factoring in the cost of the phone, if I keep it for a year I’m still only paying about $20 a month. But then, I don’t wander around with my phone glued to my ear either.
Don’t need a smart phone - I can’t see where I’d get $80-100 worth of internet usage out of it every month to justify the extra cost. I have a wifi iPad I use on the bus to watch movies and TV shows, and carry almost everywhere. Free wifi is common enough and I don’t really feel the need to check the internet everywhere I go anyway.
Comcast keeps trying to sell me their digital voice services and I keep telling them I’m not interested. I have a phone in my pocket. Why do I need a second one at home?
AT&T Gophone, 10¢/minute, 20¢/text (send or receive), $25 for 90 days. Unused balance rolls over. I bought it for emergencies and occasional normal use. The few times I’ve had to use it due to car trouble made it well worth the money.
Around 2002 my husband and I had cell phones. We had some kind of dirt cheap plan where all you had to do to keep it activated was use it once a month. I would mark it on the calendar when we needed to call each other—one waiting expectantly by the land line while the other one punched in the numbers on the little phone, but it got to be a hassle and we let it expire.
I can count the times on one hand when I’ve wished I had a cell phone. But because I don’t I’ve had experiences I would have otherwise missed. One time, car trouble in near dark and it was cold. I trudged to the nearest house where they let me into their warm, lighted front room and use the phone. While waiting for rescue, I drank the offered cup of coffee while settled on their couch and watched their grandson, who they were babysitting, go through his antics reserved for “friendly strangers”.
Every time we go out I wonder Who are all these people talking to? And about what? In Walmart, it’s pussy-whipped (sorry if that’s not acceptable) husbands begging "But they don’t have that brand/flavor/size—will such-and-such be alright? Or distracted women proclaiming I told her to leave his ass and not pay it. ??? And teenagers walking like zombies into end-caps and other shoppers.
I had a T-shirt made up that on the front reads “If I wanted to hear somebody else talk…” On the back is a cell phone with a slash across it and it finishes “…I’d listen to my husband.” Haven’t had the nerve to wear it in Walmart yet, though.
I can call it a dumbphone if I like. As for the other, that’s good to know, but I still never intend to get a smartphone, so let’s just say the charges are too much for me. I have no interest in being bound up in any sort of cellphone contract. With my TracFone, I add minutes every year and that’s the only obligation I have.
I get my wifi/etc. for the tablet through my Internet provider, whom I am paying anyway, and the tablet has far more joy than a cellphone ever could. No one ever calls me on it, for one thing. I really don’t like talking on the phone, and I hate talking on the cellphone.
That’s all fine, I’m not trying to sell you anything, it’s just that it seems you have a few misconceptions:
These days you can get a *very *reasonably priced smartphone, either new or used, if you know what to look for and do a little shopping around.
Just because you have a smartphone doesn’t mean you have to have a data plan. (With non-extortionate carriers, at least.) So, you could get a very cheap voice-only plan and only use data when you’re somewhere with wifi, like you do now with your tablet. But…
These days, plans that include data can actually be pretty reasonable, specially if you don’t need/use a lot of voice minutes. So, you don’t necessarily have to pay an arm and a leg to break the dependence on wifi. The utility of a smartphone is greatly enhanced by always having a connection wherever you go - not just when you’re somewhere with wifi.
Finally, counter to what you just said above, you don’t actually need to be bound up in any contracts to take advantage of anything I just mentioned. You can get all of that in no-contract, prepaid, and/or pay-as-you-go plans.
Considering I’ve spent the last 11 years or so designing and producing cell phones…yeah. I have a few dozen around the house. Right now I have three active phones, but I only carry two of them.
Just a little clarification: Although I said I got my first and only one just three years ago, the wife has had one since the 1990s. She’s always needed it for her work. She also has a tablet and a laptop and a smartphone and stuff that I don’t really know what they’re all for. I’m happy with just this PC and my dumbphone, which is turned off most of the time anyway.
I got my first dumbphone in July 2010. Had it ever since … until this past Sunday. Thailand is getting 4G, and my service provider has a promotion to give all their 2G users a free 4G phone. Or at least a 3G one, but I opted for the 4G. Free. The company is Advanced Info Service, and the phone is their own Lumina brand. I’m sticking with my old phone package though, so I’ll still pay only about US$6.50 a month. That means I won’t automatically have Internet access just walking down the street like the wife does, but I can access WiFi in places that have it. Like our home, although I’ll still just use the Net on the PC.
As for the other, that’s good to know, but I still never intend to get a smartphone, so let’s just say the charges are too much for me. I have no interest in being bound up in any sort of cellphone contract. With my TracFone, I add minutes every year and that’s the only obligation I have.